1. In a will or deed, this indicates that in the event of there being no
children born to or surviving the deceased person, the property will go to a
third party2. In common law, the condition continues with the children of
the first taker.

FALAISE ROLL

Names applied to the Falaise Roll were compiled from Vital, Wace, the
Bayeux Tapestry and the Researches of La Rue 24 and others. These 400 names
are shown as they were written in the time of William the Conqueror.
It supposed is a list (partial) of his companions at the Conquest.

FAMILY GROUP SHEET

a more-or-less standard form for recording genealogical information on one
husband and wife with the children born to them

FAMILY HISTORY CENTER

a local or regional LDS library that can order a lot of genealogical
records on loan from Salt Lake City

FAMILY HISTORY LIBRARY

the huge library of genealogical information maintained by the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City, open to the public. It
holds over 2 million rolls of microfilmed records, 400,000 microfiche, and
300,000 books. It also houses an extensive collection of written manuscripts
including family histories, local histories, indexes, periodicals, and aids to
help in genealogical research

[Medieval] loyalty or fidelity owed to a feudal lord by his tenant.
Originating in the Carolingian capitularies, it is essentially an oath
promising service and fidelity (loyalty) to one's lord or king.

unqualified ownership and power of disposition of a piece of real
property. An estate in fee simple is one which the owner can fully be conveyed
to heirs, by
deed or by will.
Under English common law, an estate in fee simple is absolute and unqualified
inheritance.

FEET OF FINES

during the English period, the third bottom part of the final
concord of the fines document, which was filed with the Royal
Treasury. It served to validate the concord from forgeries and fraud,
which were rampant during this period.

FELDE

field

FELONY

originally, a violation of the feudal contract; later, a violation against
the King's peace comprising any serious crime

[French] a underage woman who married without permission. She was
prohibited from possessing or selling property to which she was heir.
This provision was intended to keep family property from falling into the
hands of unscrupulous men

a person who receives the fief.
Today this would be synonymous with "trustee". Feoffees were often related to
the party for whom they held property. As such, a list of feoffees is often
helpful in ferreting out relationships which might be difficult to prove
otherwise. The same person who served as feoffee of property might also serve
as a witness for a marriage settlement or as supervisor of a will. That is
usually a sign that the parties were related in some way. -- Douglas
Richardson (edited) The terms have
fallen out of use, though once described the only means by which a transfer of
land or other inheritable property might be accomplished. -- Paul
Drake

FEOFFMENT

the gift or assignment of any corporeal hereditament to another, operating
by transmutation of possession, and requiring, as essential to its completion,
that the seisin
be passed, which might be accomplished either by investiture
or by livery
of seisin. A gift of a freehold interest in land accompanied by livery of
seisin. The essential part is the livery of seisin. Also the deed or
conveyance by which such corporeal hereditament is passed. {B}

FEOFFMENT TO USES

an early form of tax avoidance, and an important one, as it led to the
creation of trusts, the abolition of feudal dues and to the devisability of
land. As such, it might bear explanation. The term sometimes causes confusion
because of the word "use", which does not mean "use" as is generally
understood, but is the legal term for "benefit". With a feoffment-to-use, an
estate was conveyed to a feoffee to hold to the use, i.e., for the benefit, of
the feoffor or of a third party. At common law, which only recognised the
holding of land, the the gift of any corporeal hereditament to another,
operating by transmutation of possession, and requiring, as essential to its
completion, that the seisin
of the land was in the feoffee-to-uses. In the Court of Chancery, however, the
feoffee was merely the nominal holder, the benefits having been agreed by the
parties to belong to the feoffor or the third party (i.e., the beneficial
owner, the "cestui que use" -- French, not Latin, for "he who benefits").
Under common law, of course, land was not devisable (disposable by will) but
the "use", the beneficial ownership, was. This loophole in the law allowed the
landholder to make conveyances to uses in secrecy by not going through the
usual process of the public livery of seisin. The scheme, in effect, attempted
to avoid escheat, to subvert the payment of feudal incidents (relief, wardship
and mortmain) and to enable devises of land by will. The Statute of Uses,
1535, in an attempt to retain feudal dues, blocked feoffments-to-use by
converting the use into the legal estate and making the cestui que use the
legal owner. The Statute failed to destroy uses, however, because it was held
that it executed only the first use. So, if the first cestui que use held the
land on the behalf of a second, there was still an equitable estate. The
second use came to be known as a trust and the feoffees as trustees. The
Statute of Uses, in failing to abolish the devising of land, caused the
Statute of Wills, 1540, to be produced which permitted the devising of all
socage land and up to two-thirds of land held by knight service. The Tenures
Abolition Act, 1660, made all land devisable, except that held by serjeanty.
-- Ivor West

an early English method of conveyance by which the transferor met the
transferee at or near the land to be transferred and handed over a twig or
clod while reciting to witnesses that the transfer was being made.{B}

[Welsh daughter of] Also seen as 'verch' which is the English
corruption of ferch

FERM

rent

FESSE

[heraldry] a large horizontal stripe. A fesse cotised
is a large horizontal stripe between two smaller stipes

FI FA

See FIERI FACIAS, next.

FICHT-WITE

the fine incurred for a homicide

FIDALGO

[Hispanic nobleman]

FIDE

son of; also seen as fi de

FIEF

heritable lands held under tenure or fealty to a lord, and is also called a
"holding"

FIERI FACIAS, writ of

[Latin that you cause [it] to be done] It is a form of court
warrant authorizing property to be attached in aid of execution of a money
judgment -- often called "fi fa" in courthouse shorthand. The sheriff's sale
would follow the attachment, with the net proceeds going to the creditor.

FILIAM

[Latin daughter]

FILIOLUS

[Latin little son] godson

FILIUM

[Latin son]

FIMBRIATED

[Heraldric] outlined

FINAL CONCORD

during the English Medieval period, a decision by a panel of judges,
usually four, to render decisions usually regarding property disputes. The
concord was made permanent and binding if uncontested for a year and a day.
The record of the final concord was in three parts -- one to the plaintiff,
one to the defendant, and the third bottom part called the feet
of fines, went to the Royal Treasury.

FINAL PAPERS

petition for citizenship with supporting documentation filed by an alien
in a court of law

FINES

Fines, or final concords, were conveyances of land by means of a legal
action (normally fictitious after 1300), that resulted in a copy of the final
agreement, or concord, between the purchaser, known as the querent, and the
seller, known as the deforciant, being filed with the records of the king's
court and open to public inspection. This final agreement was normally written
out three times on a single sheet of parchment - two copies side by side and
one copy across the bottom of the sheet, separated by an indented or wavy
line. The purchaser kept one copy, the seller the other and the final copy -
'the foot of the fine'- was kept by the court as a central record of the
conveyance. It was a means of having title registered to guard against
subsequent fraud or forgery as copies if this three piece jig-saw would only
fit together if genuine. There was no legal obligation to have title
registered in this way. Often the fine is one of a series of conveyancing
deeds some of which may give more detail about the property - such private
deeds are less likely to have survived with the public records

FINIAL

a slender piece of stone to decorate the top of the
merlons of a castle

FIREBOTE

wood granted by a lord to his tenants for fuel

FIRELANDS

a tract of land in northeastern Ohio reserved by Connecticut for its own
settlers when it ceded its western lands in 1786. The state of Connecticut
deeded land there to its citizens whose homes were burned during the
Revolutionary War, therefore the territory became known as "fireland"

FIRST MONTH

for most legal purposes (from medieval times until 1752), the new year in
England was held to begin on Lady Day, 25 March. But in accordance with the
general custom, many took it to begin on 1 January, as in the Julian
calender. {P}

FIRST PAPERS

declaration of intention filed by an alien in a court of law

FISCALINUS

a serf on a royal or ecclesiastical estate

FITZ

Fitz is the Norman French equivalent of "son of", having the same root as
French "fils" and Latin "filius". The patronymic
would change from generation to generation. Then came a soldification into a
surname on the order of Johnson, Anderson. Some examples are FitzAlan,
FitzGerald.

FLEM AND FLITTE [FLEMENEFRIT]

the royal privilege of receiving or relieving outlaws

FLAMEN

[Latin] one of the 15 priests or flamines assigned to a
state-supported god in the Roman religion. They wore a leather scull
cap-type hat called an apex and a heavy woolen coat called a læna.
There were two classes -- flamen
maiores, who had to be patricians
and flamen minores, who could be
plebians.

From Wikipedia --
Flamines maiores:

The Flamen Dialis oversaw the cult of Jupiter the sky deity and ruler of the gods.

The Flamen Martialis oversaw the cult of Mars, the god of war, leading public on the days sacred to Mars. The sacred spears of Mars were ritually shaken by
the Flamen Martialis when the legions were preparing for war.

The Flamen Quirinalis oversaw the cult of Quirinus, who presided over organized Roman social life and was related to the peaceful aspect of Mars. The
Flamen Quirinalis led public rites on the days sacred to Quirinus.

A fourth flamen maior was added after 44 BC dedicated to Julius Caesar. When the imperial cult got underway, further
flamines were appointed to worship the divine Roman emperors.

[Heraldry; French lily flower] a device consisting of a stylized
three-petaled iris flower, used as the armorial emblem of the kings of France

FLOURIT

[Latin, he lives] in genealogy, used to describe the years during
which an individual lived the the birth and death dates are not known..
Frequently shown as the abbreviation fl.

FLORY

[Heraldric] a series of fleur-de-lis

FLUX

bloody flux is a bloody diarrhea and is usually caused by the bacteria
Shigella. It is most commonly spread by food contaminated with fecal matter. A
possible source is apples off the ground in a field that included livestock

an order of friars founded by St. Francis of Assisi, emphasizing
preaching. Consequently, they were instrumental in establishing many
universities. They were also called friars minor, or greyfriars, for the
color of their habit.

a medieval English system under which each male member of a tithing,
twelve years old or older, was responsible for the good conduct of other
members. The lord had the right to call the freemen together in decennaries,
or groups of ten, to hold each as a surety for the good of the others.
Violations were heard in Frankpledge
Court. Also called Tenemental. See also
VIEW OF FRANKPLEDGE.

one who has a freehold estate, by holding land by fee
simple, which is to hold a piece of property outright with no other claims
on it. In colonial times, a freeholder had the right to vote and hold public
office.

FREEMAN

one who held the full rights of citizenship, such as voting and engaging
in business (as opposed to an indentured servant). In medieval times, a
freeman, in the sense of a franklin, was a man, not of noble birth, who held
his land in free socage
as compared to one who held in base or villein socage.

FREIHERR

a Germanic title, which in medieval times meant one who had a free
feif for which tenure one was not a servant in sensu stricto but a vassal. One had to fulfill his
vassal
duties